Gore Verbinski of Pirates feels Unreal Engine makes movies CGI worse – Epic Response

Director Gore Verbinski criticizes the use of Unreal Engine in modern cinema, claiming it introduces a “gaming aesthetic” that detracts from photo-realism. He points to poor lighting and animation issues, arguing that today’s CGI lacks the artistry and depth seen in earlier films, especially in comparison to traditional tools like Maya and Renderman.

March 6, 2026

2–3 minutes

I came across this old piece on PC Gamer where director Gore Verbinski is dissing the use of Unreal Engine in movies these days. He thinks it brings in this “gaming vibe” that totally messes with that photo-realistic look.

IGN

Do visual effects look worse than they used to? The director of Pirates of the Caribbean says Unreal is the culprit.

So Gore Verbinski feels that movies today in 2025-2026 look worse.

Is unreal the culprit for bad movies looks?

I do feel it’s the lack of proper shader development. and Maybe artistic direction. Cause Unreal out of the box comes prebuilt for Gaming.

But TV shows like mandolorian benefitted from virtual production and real time rendering.

He does feel that Movies like Marvel have this gaming looks.

But unreal seems like its used in part of the production and not really in Final Renders.

I've seen this floating around lately and it's… such a weird take? Because at least in my experience, UE is not used for final-pixel in film. Sure it's used in volumes for virtual production, but those are usually replaced in post anyway. Not to mention UE is not replacing… https://t.co/UliNFxGMyg
— William Faucher (@WillFaucherVFX) January 22, 2026

Epic tries to do damage control reponse

“It’s inaccurate for anyone in the industry to claim that one tool is to blame for some erroneously perceived issues with the state of VFX and CGI. It’s true that there are a lot more people making computer graphics than ever before, and with that scale comes a range of successes and failures—but aesthetic and craft comes from artists, not software.”

https://www.pcgamer.com/movies-tv/epic-responds-to-director-gore-verbinskis-claims-that-unreal-engine-is-making-movie-cgi-worse-aesthetic-and-craft-comes-from-artists-not-software

@EpicGames tries to damage control after Gore Verbinski repeats our proof (https://t.co/soADHZyBMe) showing how @UnrealEngine
is destroying actual realism by instead delivering uncanny garbage.

Sub to help us make @EpicGames' incompetence in graphics become more mainstream. pic.twitter.com/5gWuyRDRZ7
— Threat Interactive (@ThreatInteract) January 21, 2026

‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ director Gore Verbinski says that some CGI in movies now is worse because of over-reliance on Unreal Engine

“People started thinking maybe movies can also use Unreal for finished visual effects. So you have this sort of gaming aesthetic entering the… pic.twitter.com/ZLk9bkLL3T
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) January 21, 2026

No I think it’s due to lack of art direction and having a plastic look of CG.

Maya and Renderman were the high technical tools used during Pirates of the Caribbean but these tools are too technically driven and not that artist friendly?

Maybe it’s due to the new artist affected by Tiktok brain and IG Reels that they view the world through the lens of a phone?

I have been seeing essays on YouTube about cinema these days have a IPhone like aesthetic compared to the wide angle lenses so things looked blur in the background.

Why David Jones looked so real CGY

ILM David Jones

Verbinski’s Criticism of Unreal Engine in CGI

• ⁠Gaming Aesthetic in Cinema: Verbinski believes that the Unreal Engine, traditionally used for video games, has brought a “gaming aesthetic” into cinema, which he finds problematic for photo-realism. “So you have this sort of gaming aesthetic entering the world of cinema.”
• ⁠Lack of Photo-Realism: He argues that Unreal Engine struggles with realistic lighting, subsurface scattering, and other elements necessary for creating truly photo-real CGI. “I think it doesn’t work from a strictly photo-real standpoint.”
• ⁠Uncanny Valley: Verbinski points out that the engine’s limitations can lead to the “uncanny valley” effect, especially in creature animation. “So that’s how you get this uncanny valley when you come to creature animation, a lot of in-betweening is done for speed instead of being done by hand.”